Berlin defends its participation in UN conference, saying it is working to “prevent the Durban process from being used to pillory Israel.”

BERLIN – The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a strongly worded letter on Tuesday
to Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemning his country’s failure
to boycott the UN-sponsored Durban III conference, which has become a hallmark
process for singling out Israel for attacks and charges of racism.

Rabbi
Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem
Post on Wednesday, “As one of the spokesmen for the Jewish groups at the
anti-Semitic hatefest that was Durban I in South Africa – as well watching the
UN bestow the opening Speech of Durban II in Geneva to Ahmadinejad – a leader
openly committed to the Jewish state’s destruction, I am deeply shocked that
Berlin is dithering until the last moment instead of taking the lead to defund
and shut down the Durban Process once and for all.”

The Wiesenthal letter
was sent to Ambassador Peter Wittig, Germany’s top diplomat at the UN. Cooper
and Mark Weitzman, the Wiesenthal Center’s director of governmental affairs,
wrote, “We are contacting you to express our deep consternation and outrage that
Germany has not yet decided to boycott the 10th anniversary of the so-called
Durban process. From the outset in August 2011, the World Conference Against
Racism has served to facilitate the canard that Israel is an apartheid state,
and more recently, provided a keynote platform for Iran’s President Ahmadinejad,
who openly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state.”

The letter
concluded: “We urge Germany to immediately announce that it will not attend next
month’s Durban event at the United Nations in New York, and to urge all other
members of the European Union to follow suit.”

On Wednesday, Austria
decided to boycott the Durban III conference because of concerns about the
“political tone” of the event, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Schallenberg.

Asked about Austria’s decision and the Wiesenthal letter, a
spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration wrote the Post
on Wednesday that “traditionally, the federal government does not comment on the
decisions of other countries.”

The spokeswoman referred to a statement
from Germany’s Foreign Ministry about its slated participation in Durban III.
The statement reads that Germany is working to “prevent the Durban process from
being used to pillory Israel.”

A spokesman from Germany’s Foreign
Ministry declined to comment on Austria’s decision to avoid Durban III. In
response to the Wiesenthal letter, he reiterated the statement to the Post that
Germany is working to prevent the event from turning into an anti-Israeli
spectacle.

Anne Bayefsky, a human rights scholar and the main organizer of a counter-Durban III conference in New York, told the Post on Wednesday, "Austria's pullout from Durban III puts Germany to shame. The spectacle of the German government hanging on to a conference that legitimizes global anti-semitism under a UN banner is an astounding statement of moral confusion. It should be cleared up by following Austria's example now."

The World Jewish Congress, the Central Council of Jews in
Germany and the Berlin-Potsdam branch of the German- Israeli Friendship Society
have urged Germany over the past week to boycott Durban III because the event is
tainted with hatred of Israel and Jews.

Meanwhile, German Foreign
Minister Guido Westerwelle is faced with a leadership crisis over his
mishandling of the UN Libyan no-flight zone vote to protect the civilian
population against former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s
attacks.

Westerwelle directed Wittig to abstain from the US prono- flight
zone vote and join Russia and China in their opposition to NATO
intervention.

Former Green Party foreign minister Joschka Fischer termed
Westerwelle’s decision- making process a “debacle” and the worst foreign affairs
decision since the establishment of Germany’s post-war democracy.

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